It’s been one heck of a month here at SimplyOutdoors, and it just keeps getting better.  I’m very proud and pleased to announce that we have our first sponsor – Cottage Craft Works.

Cottage Craft Works make all kinds of unique things – hand-made furniture, fishing lures, custom gun stocks, toys and, of course, my personal favorite, hunting calls.  They make box calls, slate calls, owl hoots, grunt calls, and duck calls.  And many of their craftsmen work in small home-based shops across the United States, and some of their products come from deep within the Amish community and are made without the help of modern machinery or electricity.  How is that for a unique product?

We received our first calls this week, and to say that we were pleased would be an understatement.  The calls are gorgeous, they’re very unique, and they sound awesome.  I’m sure they will definitely help us to persuade a wary tom to head for our setup this spring.

And, in the true SimplyOutdoors’ spirit, we got the kids involved with the calls as well.  My little Abby gave the slate call a try with Uncle Jeff’s direction, and then later on, she gave the box call a try with some help from daddy.  I’m happy to report that she approved of both calls, and had a blast giving them a try (as you can see in the picture to the right).

We are very happy with the calls, and we can’t wait to take them into the field and put them to the test.  I know that they are going to help immensely in our turkey hunting pursuits.

And we’re proud to have Cottage Craft Works supporting us.

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This video features some highlights from a hunt that Jeff and his son, Tyler, went on last year.  They definitely have some close encounters, but you’ll have to watch to see if Tyler fills his tag or not.

I just love seeing the kids involved in the outdoors.  It’s too cool!

Click the picture to watch.

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Most of my readers know that I have a young daughter, and many of them have previously read posts in which I alluded to the fact that I plan – in some capacity or another – to have her involved in the outdoors.  My hope is that she enjoys hunting and fishing along with the rest of us, but I would be more than happy if she developed any sort of love of the outdoors – whether it be hiking, cross country skiing, or camping just to name a few.

I’ve thought about this subject many times, and have pondered how I would help to instill a love of the outdoor world within her.  And in the spirit of Kristine’s challenge she posted on the OBS site, I thought I would lay out a few ways I plan to get my daughter into the outdoors.  Of course, these ideas could also apply to getting any child in the outdoors, which is the whole idea behind Kristine’s post in the first place. And without further ado:

1. First, we’ve always included her in any outdoor-related event we’ve been involved in since she was very young.  At only 16 months of age we’ve had her camping multiple times, fishing quite a few times, and just all around hanging out outside as often as we can.  We want being outside, and enjoying nature to be an every day type of thing; we want it to be expected.
2. Second, we plan to provide her with plenty of outdoor-related variety.  As I alluded to in the start of this post, I would love nothing more than to have her involved in hunting and fishing, but more so, I want her to be involved in the outdoors in one way or another.  The only way to truly do that is to provide her with as many outdoor opportunities as possible.  I want her to be exposed to fishing, hunting, camping, hiking, skiing, sledding, and a host of many other outdoor activities early and often.  Having her exposed to a variety of outdoor activities will allow her to have more choices, and increase the likelihood that she will possess some sort of outdoor love far into the future.
3. Third, I plan to have the love of the outdoors to be a non-pressured choice.  I want her to want to be in the outdoors and enjoying nature, rather than forcing her to be an outdoor lover.  I want to show her the many different things the outdoors has to offer, and then let her choose what outdoor-related activity fits her best.  I will not shove the outdoors down her throat, or make her feel pressured to enjoy any particular style of outdoor enjoyment; I will simply show her many different types of outdoor activities, and let her decide which ones she likes best.
4. Fourth, I will always make sure to take time to share the outdoors with her.  All of us have many demands that are put on us every day, and that makes it very easy to make excuses for why we didn’t get outside and spend time with our kids.  Despite those demands, I will always do my best to spend time with her in nature; after all that is the foundation that starts a love of nature that will last a lifetime.
5. And the most important thing you can do to instill a love of nature in young children?  Allow them to be kids – let ‘em make mud pies, chase lightning bugs, play flashlight tag, and have some fun while keeping the video games and television watching to a minimum.  Trust me, they’ll never miss ‘em.

I believe these five points are excellent starting points that will help to instill a love of nature in young children.  And I hope they do their part to instill a love of nature into my daughter.  I hope we enjoy the outdoors together in some capacity, and I hope that the points I listed above help us to do just that.

I want a love of nature to be a natural thing in Abby’s life, and to not be forced.  I think the points I listed above will help in that endeavor, and I look forward to sharing every minute I get with her outside.

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I checked weather.com to find out it would be 25 degrees for a high, and only 14 if you figured in the wind chill.  But that didn’t stop any of us from heading outside this weekend.  We were part of the brave crowd.

And it was fun.

It started with a chilly quad ride.  Normally this time of year everyone would be riding snowmobiles, but luckily for me the snow hasn’t cooperated and the snowmobile trails were a mess; I don’t own a snowmobile, so I would have had to sit at the cottage and let everyone else ride their sleds.  I do own a quad, though, so three of us took those and tore down some trails and a few of the roads, all the while taking in the awesome scenery.  I love the laws that allow us to ride all the secondary roads in the county.  It’s awesome.

The ice-cold wind was finding its way through my helmet, and the 8 layers I had on weren’t preventing it from smacking me right in the chest.  But I was still in heaven.  The trails and roads were lightly snow-covered, and the scenery was something that could only be found in North Country such as this.  It was awesome.  I ignored the icicles hanging from my nose, my frozen thumb that was operating the throttle, and drove on.  It was perfect.

After a few hours of that, we headed back to all of our families who were waiting at the cottage.  They had come in order to visit Tip Up Town USA.  Houghton Lake is a smorgasbord for anything ice or snow-related this time of year, and the annual two week festival was to provide many things for the kids to do: They rode fair rides, fed a llama that I thought might eat their clothes off, and slid down the ice slide.  Honestly, the ice slide was one of the highlights of the trip – If you could have only seen the smiles on the kids’ faces as they slid down that thing – all bundled up in snow pants and winter coats – with a grin on their face all the way to the bottom.

The adults had a good time, too.  I loved watching the kids experiencing everything, including my little Abby who looked somewhat like the I-can’t-put-my-arms-down kid from A Christmas Story; she was so bundled up I’m not sure how she managed to fall asleep in her stroller through most of the experience.

I even managed to do something that most of the group was amazed by:  walk on the ice.  I hate ice fishing, and I hate standing on the ice; it is just a strange feeling for me.  But when there are vehicles out on the ice, I figure it’s safe to step on out.  Jeff relished in the moment and managed to capture a few pictures for proof.  Heck, it was so much fun, if the weather cooperates; I might even ice fish with him this weekend on a local lake.

Cabin fever tends to settle in for a lot of people this time of year, but I’m glad that hasn’t happened to any of us.  There is just something invigorating and refreshing about being outside………..even if you have to wear 8 layers to stay warm.

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This story was posted by a member of another forum I am on a lot(michigan-sportsman.com). After reading it-it really made me realize why I love the outdoors so much. I hope it does the same for you! Thanks Northjeff for letting me re-post this. Its really opened my eyes.

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I haven’t been around here in quite some time and boy a lot can change, quickly. “Life Changes”. I don’t mind saying that throughout and after my divorce in August of 2008 life has been interesting to put it best. I had a “good” divorce if there is such a thing after the end of a 14 year marriage with 3 kids, and some think its weird but I have dinner typically once a week with my ex, her new husband, and my kids. I share joint custody of my kids and because of the flexibility of my job I take them to school, often get to eat lunches with them, pick them up from school, and get a lot of dinners, movie nights, beach time, and other quality time with my kids. My ex, Michelle, and I are close friends to the point we still blend our families together for birthdays and holidays.

But even easy divorces are not easy. We sold my 120 acre hunting parcel this year and to be honest I haven’t really felt like hunting much the past 2 seasons. Life just changes. Talking about hunting, planning about hunting, and of course working in the hunting industry…it all honestly seemed like more of a chore the past 2 seasons!

I think in 2008 I just wanted to get through the season, with my highlights being hunting with other people…close friends, my father, and of course all 3 of my kids When I had opportunity to go alone, I usually passed up the opportunity faster than a really big spike!

These past two seasons have taught me a lot…a lot about both myself, and hunting. My time with friends and family has been incredible the past 2 seasons! I have shot a lot of big, mature, whitetails throughout the years but looking back the most memorable hunts of my life, let alone the past 2 seasons, have occurred with someone else. A few years ago the largest buck I ever shot died within 20 yards of my treestand. However, it wasn’t the size of the buck that mattered but instead the reaction of my buddy Karl running 500 yards down the hollow, falling and breaking his quiver, just to give me a hug of congratulations. In fact, I sat at the base of the tree and didn’t go look at the buck until he got there. We walked up to him together and stood in both awe and respect of the “buck of a lifetime”. Other friends hunting about 20 miles away came to see him before he was taken out of the woods and we were able to get a round of pictures together.

This year karl and I were able to get our first “double” together, scoring on a couple of WI giants during rifle season, and then being able to get pictures and get Karl to the airport with an hour to spare. The best part? My buck required a bit of a tracking job with karl shadowing me about 20 yards behind. When he was finally recovered, karl was there for the same congratulations that I was there for when doing the same with him just 2 weeks earlier during the bow season.

One of the largest bucks I ever shot in MI was with my 5 year old daughter in the blind…all snuggled, beside me on the last minute of the last day of rifle season. She knew the buck, I knew he buck…and memories were made!

So that brings me to my best hunt ever and if you’ve stuck with the story this long maybe you too can appreciate it. Let me start by saying there was no big buck shot, there was no bucks actually seen at all! So, if you came for antlers this is the wrong story. Instead, this story involved the wild anticipation of youth, imagination, and both the fear and excitement of the unknown.

It started on the Saturday after Thanksgiving when my 7 year old son and I started out on his first actual hunting trip. I told him about the trip to PA a couple of weeks before and to say he was excited was not enough. Instead…”On cloud 9″, “about to explode”, “nervous with the unbridled anticipation of the pure happiness of youth”…comes to mind!

What better way to end the first day of our travels than with a trip to cabelas? A stuffed toy wolf and a cheap motel later and he was sleeping with a perma-grin in northern OH

On Sunday we made it to our parking spot in the woods of PA where I first hunted in 1993. We had plenty of time to make the 45 minute hike into “our spot”, find a good place to build a nest, and hike out. All that was left to do was find some pizza and a quiet bar where he could shoot some pool (like daddy), get ready for the rifle season opener, find another cheap motel…and buy our license at the local Wal Mart. Also, for $2.70 guess who was able to wear his own back-tag in the woods, after signing his own name, with an actual buck tag that he could use IF he knew how to shoot a rifle?!? My son Jacob! he was so excited…I can’t even describe to you how he felt. We played 2 games of pool, had a couple of cokes….and “hit the hay”.

At 4am the alarm was particularly rude but Jake was already putting his new long johns on and socks before I pushed myself out of bed. It was raining and in the high 30s but it looked like it would eventually clear, and it did…but not until 11! We started walking at 5:15 and arrived at our “blind” by slightly after 6. Jake was a trooper…never complaining, only whispering to me that he was a little scared which didn’t surprise me because he had absolutely no idea where he was! When I heard his deep raspy breathing about 5 minutes from the blind my heart sunk and I stopped to say, “Its ok buddy…daddy knows where we are at, and I have a big gun!” His answer, “Try….ing to…..breath”

Well, we got to the blind and I proceeded to get some dry socks on under his new cabelas $29 kid’s specials that to him might as well have been a new pair of $150 Lacrosses. Within a few minutes he and I were both “gore-texed up” and had about another 1/2 hour wait til shooting light. We were almost officially hunting!!

I had no idea how the day would go. I had food…my usual cheese (the food that binds us), apples, peanut butter crackers, chocolate covered granola bars, dove dark chocolate bars (his favorite), water, and a surprise for Jake. You see, Jake has a “thing” for energy drinks, and any adult would be insane to give him one in a normal “life” setting. But, this was a special time and when I pulled out his hunting day surprise his reaction was shocking. Jake was so happy and excited with that drink he didn’t even want to open it up! So, the drink sat the entire day as a shiny trophy in the corner of the blind as he “saved” it, for the ride home-lucky me!

Jake slept a total of around 3 hours throughout the day..maybe 5 separate naps? During 1 nap I woke him up to watch 2 does that were nervously walking in front of us. Another deer made them spook and that very well could have been “the buck”. Those were the only deer we saw but jake stayed happy and excited until 4pm, the time at which I wanted to start walking to get out of the woods by dark.

During the day it rained, snowed, and we heard a couple of dozen shots in the distance. Jake asked many questions and made many comments. “Can I shoot a coyote?”, “Can we stay another day”, “Is that snow?”, “Can I shoot the buck?”, and “I love you daddy”.

What can I say? No deer, cold and rainy, a long walk in and out, rear end sore from just sitting on the ground, chilled, damp, and Jake was still smiling, still excited, and had to take the time to tell me he loves me.

The ride home was great, the entire trip was great…and that one day with my son in the woods was the most memorable and rewarding hunting experience of my life. A shot was never even fired.

I’ve been very fortunate that through all the recent life changes I have been able to still build hunting memories to last a lifetime. Isn’t that what hunting is all about?

This year I’m heavily preparing for the upcoming management season and for the preparations of seasons to come. I love hunting mature bucks and will continue to do so. However, its not the adrenaline of the shot, the nice pictures and antlers that are my motivation…its the friends and family, the new faces of my work, and the memories to SHARE with someone that last a lifetime that have helped me get through recent changes in life. Too bad it took until almost the age of 40 and 24 seasons under my belt to realize it!

I hope you have all had memorable hunts this year, and I will be seeing you around

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